Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1887-06-16
THE USE OF COCA.

Consul du Pre- transmits from oan
Salvador an interesting report on the
use of coca, in that country and its
effects upon the inhabitants. he
says:
81 have seen so much recently writ
ten of coca in newspapers and IN
medical publications, that l am inn
PEELED to report what have learned
of the virtues of this product OF South
American forests. With leathern
straps passing around their foreheads
to sustain burdens of $50 or 2OO
pounds on their backs, I find these
1.-THE, slender natives traversing plains
and mountains with greater CELEBRITY
than the mule bestride, which travels
through the livelong day, six miles an
hour. Native physicians, eleves OF the
schools of Paris. concur In assuring
me that this extraordinary capacity
for endurance of toll and hunger is to
be ascribed to the use by these viageros
of coca.
1t is administered freely to infants.
and is the chief intoxicant of men and
women. Youths, through many days,
are entrusted with the care of valuable
focks of llamas, having no other
sustenance than that to be
found in little leathern purses contain
ing coca and its compounds. Indians
chew it constantly. They, like the
maxillary movements of tobacco
chewers, are incessant From thirty
to fifty gramas are consumed daily.
serving. unlike tobacco, both as food
and stimulant. Without coca habitual
chewers can not digest food; without
it they are unable to ascend mountains.
with long, rapid strides, never slack
ing their wonderful speed through the
livelong day, They will not toll Xith-
out it; without it they enjoy nothing;
without it. practically. they cease to
live. The immediate effect of chewing
coca is perfect insensibility of the in
terror of the mouth. The immediate
sensation is that which one would ex-
perience when finding that his mouth
had become a great void in somebody
else's head. I had a dentist apply it
when extracting the roots of molar
tooth, and the effect was as described.
Indians constantly using coca finally
lose the senses of taste and smell.
They can eat, without repugnance.
most disgusting food and drink most
nauseating draughts. The sensitive
ness of the mucus membrane has been
destroyed. When one goes further
and swallow the saliva impregnated
with the juice of to coca leaf, de-
licious sensation of warmth and per-
feet blessedness prevades ones whole
being, intellectual, nervous and
physical, and he is Tapped in the joys
of an elysium-
In doses of fifteen to sixty grains,
coca produces delightful intoxication.
Its joys transcend in perfect blessed
ness all known human delights. A sem
sation of lightness first supervenes; the
air inhaled is zephyrs from angels
wings; there are wild imaginings and
fantastic hallucinations and gorgeous
visions, and then complete insensibili
ty. 1t is intoxication without drowsi-
ness, without congestion Of the brain,
involving sense Of perfect rest. The
law of graviation is suspended and the
conquer drifts bodily among the stars.
Meanwhile the muscular system is
stimulated to an extraordinary degree.
An intellectual excitement supervenes,
enabling the ''possessed'' of this demon
to watch and toll through sleepless
days and nights. No dreadful head
ache or more intolerable nervous pros.
tration follows.
1T is the most potent nervine. al.
most at mans disposal. Its hygienie
properties are disclosed from its physi-
illogical properties" says Spanish M.
D., who adds that in hot infusion it is
| the one useful and healthful beverage
one can use after dining. Especially
is it commended to the feeble, to those
who have transcribed limits OF sobrietJ
in using alcohol. Its virtues should be
tested, therefore, in inebriate asylums
1t surely Gains nervous excitability o.
many, and, taken in small quantities,
enables one to endur
cold and rain and snow
and it enables one to defy great
fatigue and restores the forces lost by
excuses. 1t is popularity used for indi'
gestiop, for disordered stomachs, fol
hysteria, fatulency and collie, and al
forms of intestinal disorders. 1t Ii
used constantly by toilers in mines
and when one reaches the mines afte
marching several days through fores t:
and over mountains, sustained only b.
the use of coca and maize, he is per
mitted to eat at discretion throu 81
four days and have perfect rest. Their
he is In perfect health and 'fresh anC
fat" says the writer above quoted.
Observation-Disclosures intoxication b.
use of coca-more easily become
habitual and incurable than alcohol
ism or addictiveness to opiates. 1t
consequences, however, are not We
wholly measured or comprehended
excessive or constant use of the in
toxicant begets rapidly moral and in
tellectual degradation and decay
steady decline is interrupted at inter
walls by resistless impulses to do mos
violent and brutal acts. The natur
of the father, as perverted by the drug
is transmitted to the child, and the III
veterate vice, operating through gen
erations, is said to account for the brit
tality of races of Indians, the Quicha
and Aimaras OF Bolivian Businesses
~ Y Sun.
Then there are lazy ways OF breath
ing, and one-sided ways of breathing
, and the particularly bad habit
AL ~